Intubation

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Indications

  • Failure to ventilate
  • Failure to oxygenate
  • Inability to protect airway
    • Gag reflex is absent at baseline in ~1/3 of people[1], so lack of gag reflex is inadequate in determination of ability to protect airway.
  • Anticipated clinical course (anticipated deterioration, need for transport, or impending airway compromise)
  • Combative patient who needs imaging (suspicion of intracranial process, etc)

Considerations

  • 2015 AHA ACLS guidelines deemphasize placement of advanced airway placement in initial resuscitation
  • Out-of-hospital arrest data suggests lower survival of those intubated in field[2]
  • 108,000 patients examined in U.S. registry of inpatient hospital arrests, with 95% of intubations occurring within 15 min of resuscitation[3]
    • Patients intubated were significantly less likely to survive to discharge, 16% vs. 19%
    • Also less likely to be discharged with good functional status, 11% vs. 14%

Absolute Contraindications

  • No absolute contraindications when performed as an emergent procedure
    • Exception: cannot ventilate and anticipate near impossible orotracheal intubation, strongly consider surgical airway

Relative Contraindications

See Predicting the difficult airway

Difficult BVM (MOANS)

  • Mask seal
  • Obesity
  • Aged
  • No teeth
  • Stiffness (resistance to ventilation)

Difficult Intubation (LEMON)

  • Look externally (gestalt)
  • Evaluate 3-3-2 rule
  • Mallampati
  • Obstruction
  • Neck mobility

Equipment Needed

  • Medications
    • Induction agent
    • Paralytic agent
  • Laryngoscope (type based on clinical indication and provider preference)
    • Direct laryngoscope with blade of provider's choice or
    • Video laryngoscope (Glidescope, C-Mac, KingVision, etc.) or
    • Optical stylet (Shikani, Levitan, etc.) or
    • Fiberoptic device
  • Endotracheal tube
  • End-tidal CO2 device (colorimetric or quantitative)
  • Ventilator
  • Suction
  • Intubation adjuncts (bougie, lighted stylet, etc)
  • BVM
  • OPA/NPA
  • Method of preoxygenation (NC, NRB, C-PAP, etc)
  • Nasal cannula for apneic oxygenation

SOAP-ME Checklist Mnemonic

  • Suction
  • Oxygen
    • Nasal cannula
    • Non-rebreather
    • Bag-valve mask
  • Airways
    • Endotracheal tube
    • Rescue devices
    • Adjuncts
  • Positioning
  • Medications
  • Equipment
    • Laryngoscope
    • EtCO2
    • Bougie

Post-Procedure

Initial ventilation settings

Disease Tidal Volume (mL/kg^) Respiratory Rate I:E PEEP FiO2
Traditional 8 10-12 1:2 5 100%
Lung Protective (e.g. ARDS) 6 12-20 1:2 2-15 100%
Obstructive (e.g. bronchoconstriction) 6 5-8 1:4 0-5 100%
Hypovolemic 8 10-12 1:2 0-5 100%

^Ideal body weight

Complications

Video

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See Also

Airway Pages

Mechanical Ventilation Pages

External Links

References

  1. Davies AE, Kidd D, Stone SP, MacMahon J. Pharyngeal sensation and gag reflex in healthy subjects. Lancet. 1995 Feb 25;345(8948):487-8.
  2. Hasegawa K et al. Association of prehospital advanced airway management with neurologic outcome and survival in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. JAMA 2013 Jan 16; 309:257.
  3. Angus DC.Whether to intubate during cardiopulmonary resuscitation: Conventional wisdom vs big data. JAMA 2017 Feb 7; 317:477.